mirror of
https://github.com/id-Software/DOOM-3-BFG.git
synced 2024-11-22 04:12:09 +00:00
112 lines
5.1 KiB
Text
112 lines
5.1 KiB
Text
---------------------------*-indented-text-*------------------------------
|
|
|
|
TiMidity -- Experimental MIDI to WAVE converter
|
|
Copyright (C) 1995 Tuukka Toivonen <toivonen@clinet.fi>
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions with answers:
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: What is it?
|
|
|
|
A: Where? Well Chris, TiMidity is a software-only synthesizer, MIDI
|
|
renderer, MIDI to WAVE converter, realtime MIDI player for UNIX machines,
|
|
even (I've heard) a Netscape helper application. It takes a MIDI file
|
|
and writes a WAVE or raw PCM data or plays it on your digital audio
|
|
device. It sounds much more realistic than FM synthesis, but you need a
|
|
~100Mhz processor to listen to 32kHz stereo music in the background while
|
|
you work. 11kHz mono can be played on a low-end 486, and, to some, it
|
|
still sounds better than FM.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I don't have a GUS, can I use TiMidity?
|
|
|
|
A: Yes. That's the point. You don't need a Gravis Ultrasound to use
|
|
TiMidity, you just need GUS-compatible patches, which are freely
|
|
available on the Internet. See below for pointers.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I have a GUS, can I use TiMidity?
|
|
|
|
A: The DOS port doesn't have GUS support, and TiMidity won't be taking
|
|
advantage of the board's internal synthesizer under other operating
|
|
systems either. So it kind of defeats the purpose. But you can use it.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I tried playing a MIDI file I got off the Net but all I got was a
|
|
dozen warnings saying "No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program
|
|
xx - this instrument will not be heard". What's wrong?
|
|
|
|
A: The General MIDI standard specifies 128 melodic instruments and
|
|
some sixty percussion sounds. If you wish to play arbitrary General
|
|
MIDI files, you'll need to get more patch files.
|
|
|
|
There's a program called Midia for SGI's, which also plays MIDI
|
|
files and has a lot more bells and whistles than TiMidity. It uses
|
|
GUS-compatible patches, too -- so you can get the 8 MB set at
|
|
ftp://archive.cs.umbc.edu/pub/midia for pretty good GM compatibility.
|
|
|
|
There are also many excellent patches on the Ultrasound FTP sites.
|
|
I can recommend Dustin McCartney's collections gsdrum*.zip and
|
|
wow*.zip in the "[.../]sound/patches/files" directory. The huge
|
|
ProPats series (pp3-*.zip) contains good patches as well. General
|
|
MIDI files can also be found on these sites.
|
|
|
|
This site list is from the GUS FAQ:
|
|
|
|
> FTP Sites Archive Directories
|
|
> --------- -------------------
|
|
> Main N.American Site: archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis
|
|
> wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound
|
|
> Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound
|
|
> Main European Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound
|
|
> Main Australian Site: ftp.mpx.com.au /ultrasound/general
|
|
> /ultrasound/submit
|
|
> South African Site: ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/packages/ultrasound
|
|
> Submissions: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound/submit
|
|
> Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound
|
|
>
|
|
> Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound
|
|
> ftp.st.nepean.uws.edu.au pc/ultrasound
|
|
> ftp.luth.se pub/msdos/ultrasound
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: Some files have awful clicks and pops.
|
|
|
|
A: Find out which patch is responsible for the clicking (try "timidity
|
|
-P<patch> <midi/test-decay|midi/test-panning>". Add "strip=tail" in
|
|
the config file after its name. If this doesn't fix it, mail me the
|
|
patch.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I'm playing Fantasie Impromptu in the background. When I run Netscape,
|
|
the sound gets choppy and it takes ten minutes to load. What can I do?
|
|
|
|
A: Here are some things to try:
|
|
|
|
- Use a lower sampling rate.
|
|
|
|
- Use mono output. This can improve performance by 10-30%.
|
|
(Using 8-bit instead of 16-bit output makes no difference.)
|
|
|
|
- Use a smaller number of simultaneous voices.
|
|
|
|
- Make sure you compiled with FAST_DECAY and PRECALC_LOOPS enabled
|
|
in config.h
|
|
|
|
- If you don't have hardware to compute sines, recompile with
|
|
LOOKUP_SINE enabled in config.h
|
|
|
|
- Recompile with LOOKUP_HACK enabled in config.h.
|
|
|
|
- Recompile with LINEAR_INTERPOLATION disabled in config.h.
|
|
|
|
- Recompile with DANGEROUS_RENICE enabled in config.h, and make
|
|
TiMidity setuid root. This will help only if you frequently play
|
|
music while other processes are running.
|
|
|
|
- Recompile with an Intel-optimized gcc for a 5-15%
|
|
performance increase.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|